Focus on buildings and the natural environment

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Average

The sphere of activity of the research unit has as its essential aim the architectural survey of the urban context and of the landscape, intending them as moments of a single action of knowledge. This operation is really a fundamental factor both for the preservation of the historical heritage and for the introduction of new buildings in the natural environment or where there is human presence. For that reason we identified six thematic areas within which we worked and are proceeding with our research: - Documentary interpretation. This is related to the analysis, documentary processing, historical-iconographic interpretation of the building arena and of the territorial transformation. - Structure of the environment. This looks into the systematic specification and registered components of the urbanized habitat. - Interpretative analysis. This analyses the interpretation and the visualization of formal, perceptive, constituent and technological values of architecture, of urban spaces and of the territorial system. - Survey and representation. This looks at the morphological representation of the surveyed organism, which could be buildings, the city fabric or the region. - Evaluation and protection. This includes the valuation of the environmental heritage comprising the architectural and landscape resources, their protection and preservation. - Registration and administration. This studies the development of the representation system of built-up areas, of the cartography detailing the history of the landscape and habitat, identifying new technologies for computerized storage. The choice of these cultural lines has stimulated a number of studies in the sphere of architectonical and urban research, which have raised numerous and interesting results over the years. But today any development of an old town centre or natural habitat has to answer to a codification of the documented data, that allows either an interactive representation of its elements or a control of any future transformation, starting from its historical vocation. The representation doesn’t consist anymore in simple or complex drawing tables, but is constantly implemented and compared, on a territorial level, with data emerging from the analysis of different subjects. This method of representation voices all of the structural factors making up the city’s fabric, demonstrating clearly and graphically the relationship existing between these different parts. And so the aim is achieved of a repeatable model for the management of transformation; one which is, furthermore, repeatable for the development of other old town centres. This permits the creation of techniques that are sustainable and repeatable for interventions of restoration or new construction. Finally the research unit makes use of a modelling laboratory in order to check the analyzed elements.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Ambiente Costruito (BEST)

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Adele Buratti
Associate Professors
Assistant Professors
Maria Pignataro